Friendship

Friendship and love are the central themes of Charlotte’s Web. It is through the love of Fern and Charlotte that Wilbur is able to go on living, both in the beginning of the novel and in its ending.

Charlotte sums up the meaning of friendship in the novel’s end in the lines, "’You have been my friend,’ replied Charlotte. ‘That in itself is a tremendous thing. I wove my webs for you because I liked you. After all, what's a life, anyway? We're born, we live a little while, we die. A spider's life can't help being something of a mess, with all this trapping and eating flies. By helping you, perhaps I was trying to lift up my life a trifle. Heaven knows anyone's life can stand a little of

that’." (Chapter 21, p. 158)

Along with friendship comes sacrifice. Charlotte proves her devotion to Wilbur by...